Coroner to Reveal Cause of Asiana Passenger Death

Published July 19th, 2013

SAN MATEO, Calif. (AP) - A coroner plans to reveal Friday whether a Chinese student on board Asiana Flight 214 survived the crash-landing only to be killed accidentally on the runway by a firetruck racing to the wrecked, smoking plane.

The San Mateo County Coroner's Office scheduled a morning news conference to announce the cause and manner of 16-year-old Ye Meng Yuan's death.

She and her middle school classmate, 16-year-old Wang Linjia, died in the July 6 crash at San Francisco International Airport. The other victim killed, 15-year-old Liu Yipeng, died at a hospital July 12. Dozens of others were injured.

Police and fire officials confirmed last week that Yuan was hit by a firetruck racing to extinguish the blazing Boeing 777. The teenager was on the ground and covered in foam that rescuers had sprayed on the burning wreckage of Flight 214 when she was run over at least once, police said.

Rescuers discovered her body in the tire track when the truck moved while battling the flames, according to police.

Yuan and Linjia were students at Jiangshan Middle School in Zhejiang, an affluent coastal province in eastern China, Chinese state media has reported.

They were part of a group of students and teachers from the school who were heading to summer camp in Southern California. Yuan and Linjia were seated at the back of the plane, federal investigators have said.

Meanwhile, the probe into the crash itself continues. Investigators have said the plane came in too low and too slow, clipping its landing gear and then its tail on a rocky seawall just short of the runway.